Día de los Muertos

Observed each November 1st and 2nd, Día de los Muertos honours the belief, rooted more than 3,000 years in Indigenous traditions predating the Aztecs, that death is simply another step in life's journey rather than something to fear. Families build ofrendas, home altars layered with photographs, marigolds, candles and food, specifically to welcome the spirits of deceased loved ones back for a night of reunion with the living.

Pan de muerto, a soft, orange-blossom-scented sweet bread shaped into a round loaf and decorated with bone-like knobs of dough representing the departed, appears on nearly every altar across the country, its round shape symbolising the cycle of life and death. Families across Mexico's regions bring their own distinct culinary character to the celebration — Oaxaca prepares mole negro and tejate, a pre-Hispanic drink made from toasted maize and cacao; Michoacán offers pozole and corundas, a triangular tamale wrapped in corn leaves; and the Yucatán marks Hanal Pixán, its own Mayan-rooted version of the holiday, with pibipollo, chicken tamales cooked underground.

Given the belief that returning spirits absorb the essence rather than the substance of the food left for them, families often gather at gravesites through the night with music, storytelling and shared meals — a genuinely moving expression of a culture that treats remembrance not as sorrow, but as an occasion worth celebrating with exactly the foods the departed once loved most.